New Delhi: The owner of a cafe in Delhi who had accused former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer Vikash Yadav of kidnapping and attempted murder last year, was also arrested on the charge of kidnapping another businessman about 10 years ago, ThePrint has learnt.
Vikash Yadav is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s ‘most wanted’ list and has been accused of orchestrating a “murder-for-hire” plot against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and money laundering in the US.
In December last year, Yadav was arrested by the Delhi Police on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, extortion, and Arms Act violations on the complaint of the cafe owner, and granted bail in April this year.
“He (the café owner) was booked in 2013 in a kidnapping case and was later acquitted,” a senior Delhi Police officer confirmed to ThePrint.
It was lodged at Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh Police Station.
At the time, media reports alleged that the kidnapping plot was orchestrated by the businessman’s employees, including his girlfriend and the café owner (the complainant in Yadav case). The group reportedly collaborated with four “professional kidnappers” to abduct the businessman while staging their own abductions as well. They then demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore to be arranged by the businessman’s family and friends.
An episode of true crime series Crime Patrol from 2014 also featured a similar plot.
When contacted, the cafe owner asked not to be named. ThePrint has the name and it’s readily accessible from court records. Police sources have also confirmed his identity. However, it’s being withheld on his request as he fears for his security.
Charges were framed against all individuals on 24 March, 2015, for criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, kidnapping for ransom, and intentionally causing hurt to another person.
Nearly a decade after the incident, the nine accused in the case were acquitted in April last year. “The complainant has failed to identify the accused persons, who were not his employees. He exonerated remaining accused persons stating that he suspected them because they, despite being his employees, did not support him, but he later realised that they might did not support him due to fear of kidnappers (sic),” noted the acquittal order, a copy of which is with ThePrint.
Former intelligence officer Yadav, who was accused by the cafe owner of extorting money from him in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in December 2023. This had come just weeks after the November 2023 indictment by the US Department of Justice that referred to him as CC1 (co-conspirator 1).
This indictment had named Nikhil Gupta, a 52-year-old Indian citizen (currently under trial in the US) as the person who had contacted the “undercover (UC) law enforcement official”.
Three days ago, the superseding indictment by the DOJ identified Yadav as the Indian government official previously referred to as “CC-1”. India has said that Yadav was placed under suspension after his name cropped up in the alleged Pannun murder plot.
ThePrint has also exclusively reported on how Yadav was fighting a legal battle with R&AW in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for confirmation of a job he had held for nearly 9 years while allegedly targeting Pannun.
The Print reached the Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) and the Delhi Commissioner of Police for a comment. This report will be updated as and when a response is received.
The 2013 case
According to the court documents accessed by ThePrint, on 22 December, 2013 the businessman was in a guesthouse with two employees, including one who was booked for kidnapping (now acquitted). As the bell rang and one of them opened the door, four to five men, who claimed that they were members of the “Special Cell”, entered the room.
“After about 30-45 minutes, the assailants forcibly administered some liquid to the complainant, upon which he fell unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he found himself in a small room. The assailants beat up the complainant and his employees, and asked them to pay Rs 2 crore,” the court order read.
“On the kidnappers’ instruction, the complainant made telephonic calls to his family members and friends, and requested them to arrange money. An amount of Rs 10 lakh was collected by the (then) accused (the cafe owner, complainant in the Yadav case) and other kidnappers from the house of the complainant (the kidnapped businessman),” the order added.
The kidnappers later dropped this complainant and the others (his employees including the complainant against Yadav) on 24 December, 2013, near a flyover. He then filed a complaint with the police three days later.
Incidentally, the kidnappers had “forcibly obtained his (the kidnapped businessman’s) signatures on five or six cheques of his account” in the 2013 case.
According to the allegations levelled against Yadav and co-accused Abdullah Khan in last year’s case, “the accused persons also brought a bank cheque book from the cafe of the complainant and got his signature on blank cheques, and later on, dropped him near his car threatening him to remain silent”. Moreover, Yadav and Khan are also accused of beating him up and giving “some injections to the complainant”.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)